This invention relates to the art of hand operated sprayers and, more particularly, to a hand operated sprayer having a soap dispensing capability.
The present invention finds particular utility in connection with a hand operated water sprayer of the character associated with a sink such as a kitchen sink to facilitate rinsing the sink, dishes, glasses, eating utensils, and the like and, accordingly, will be described in detail herein in conjunction with such an environment of use. At the same time, however, it will be appreciated that the sprayer in accordance with the present invention has utility in other environments and in connection with cleaning and/or rinsing objects or articles other than those associated with a kitchen environment.
Hand operated kitchen sink sprayers are of course well known and, generally, include a hand held housing of metal or plastic having a water inlet end attached to a source of water under pressure by a flexible hose and having an outlet end for discharging water in the form of a spray. A water flow control valve arrangement in the housing is operable through a finger or thumb operated actuator outside the housing to selectively enable or disable the flow of water through the sprayer and, generally, the sprayer is supported in a storage position in an opening therefore in the sink and through which the flexible hose is adapted to be extended and retracted to facilitate displacing the sprayer from the storage to a use position and then back to the storage position.
Sprayers of the foregoing character are used in conjunction with rinsing dishes, glasses, eating utensils and the like after the latter have been washed with soap, thus to remove the soap prior to drying the articles. Such sprayers are also used in a similar manner to pre-clean foods from the articles prior to introducing the articles into a dishwashing machine. Such pre-cleaning may also involve the use of soap to remove dried or hardened food such as egg yolks which, otherwise, may not be removed from plates and utensils by washing in a dishwashing machine. Such pre-washing using soap has heretofore required filling the sink or other container with a quantity of water, adding soap to the water from a bottle or other container, washing an article through the use of a brush, sponge and/or cloth and then withdrawing the sprayer from its storage position to rinse the article. Alternatively, in connection with pre-cleaning of articles which are placed in a dishwasher for a subsequent washing operation, loose food particles are removed from the articles through the use of a brush, sponge or the like and, in connection therewith, the article is often held under the sink faucet with the water running which is extremely wasteful with respect to the use of water. If the hand operated sprayer is used in connection with such pre-cleaning, the person doing the cleaning is inconvenienced by having to hold the article in one hand while manipulating the brush or sponge with the other and then laying the latter down and pulling the sprayer from its storage position to rinse the article. Further inconvenience is encountered if an article requires the use of soap which has to be dispensed onto the article or onto the brush or sponge from its container which then has to be put down so that the article can be held in one hand and the brush or sponge in the other to facilitate cleaning the article. After such cleaning, the brush or sponge has to be put down so that the sprayer can be withdrawn from its storage position and operated to rinse the article. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that considerable time and energy as well as water is wasted in performing the washing and/or pre-washing of dishes and other utensils in the foregoing manner and that neither such washing or pre-washing operation is efficient with respect to optimizing the ease of and minimizing the number of hand motions and manipulations required on the part of the person performing the washing or pre-washing operation.
It has been proposed heretofore, as shown for example in the shower and shampoo brushes disclosed in patents 1,191,578 to England, 1,760,018 to Soss, 2,250,878 to Quaranti, 4,236,840 to Kennedy and 5,109,553 to Kishimoto to provide a spraying device with the ability to selectively discharge water or soap therefrom. While such devices would have the capability of alleviating certain of the user inconveniences referred to above in connection with their use as a sink mounted sprayer, the soap and water dispensing controls are inconvenient and/or impossible to operate either simultaneously or by just one hand of the user, whereby a user attempting to clean an article may have to put the article down in order to manipulate one or the other of the controls. Accordingly, the washing and/or rinsing operation is encumbered and, in connecting with manipulating one or the other of the controls, the user's attention may be detracted from the direction of dispensing of the water or soap, whereby the latter is misdirected onto adjacent surface areas which have to be wiped dry. Moreover, the operation becomes inefficient from the standpoint of both time and potential wastage of water and/or soap. Further, in most of the water and soap dispensing devices heretofore available, the dispensing of soap is by gravity flow and, accordingly, is slow. Furthermore, unless the water flow is shut off during the dispensing of soap, the water under pressure can flow into the soap reservoir thus diluting the soap and possibly causing the latter to suds in the reservoir, both of which are undesirable. Even in the shampoo brush in the patent to Kishirnoto, wherein soap is pushed through the dispensing outlet, the chamber from which the soap is dispensed is filled by gravity and there is a period of time during dispensing when both the chamber and soap reservoir are open to the backflow of water thereinto which, as pointed out above, can either dilute the soap or cause sudsing thereof None of the sprayers heretofore available provide for selectively or simultaneously dispensing water and soap in a manner which is efficient with respect to operation of the sprayer and convenient with respect to manipulation of the water and soap dispensing control devices by the user.